Selling the Invisible: a field Guide to Modern Marketing \(Biz Books to Go\) pdfdrive com

Tell the truth. Even if it hurts, it will help.
Business Is in the Details
People who insist, “The companies in our industry are basically alike” must
recognize a human trait.
People feel a need to justify their decisions to themselves. So they look for
differences upon which to base their decision.
What does this mean to a company in an industry of lookalikes?
It means that the more alike two services are, the m o re important each
difference becomes.
With meaningful differences difficult to find, prospects look for signals in
seemingly trivial differences: the decor of the lobby, the color of the business
card, the heft of the brochure, even the smell of the salesperson’s cologne.
Unable to see the real differences between the services, prospects look for clues
to differences elsewhere.
It bears repeating:

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The more similar the services, the more important the differences.
In fact, much of effective service management can be described as the careful
management of the seemingly inconsequential.
Accentuate the trivial.

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OSITIONING AND
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OCUS

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Fanatical Focus
Ask the pizza man. Successful marketing starts with positioning.
This principle is the focus of Al Ries and Jack Trout’s marketing classic,
Positioning. In its most important essentials, Positioning says:
1. You must position yourself in your prospect’s mind.
2. Your position should be singular: one simple message.
3. Your position must set you apart from your competitors.
4. You must sacrifice. You cannot be all things to all people; you must
focus on one thing.
Domino’s vividly illustrates strong service positioning. For years, Domino’s
never mentioned quality, price, or value. Instead, Domino’s relentlessly stressed
its speed: “30 Minutes or It’s On Us,” ad after ad after ad.
As a result, Domino’s came to “own” the distinctive concept of speed in the
pizza delivery business. When people thought of fast, reliable delivery, they
thought of Domino’s.
Today, when reporters ask Domino’s president, Tom Monaghan, the secret of
his success, what does he answer?
“A fanatical focus on doing one thing well.” Stand for one distinctive thing